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Pequot Lakes School District seeks comment in person, online for strategic roadmap

The Pequot Lakes School District is asking the community to go online and answer four open-ended questions that could influence the future of the district.

Along with the school board, superintendent Chris Lindholm is working with administration to develop a vision of what the school district will look like in the year 2020. Once that vision is created, the district will develop strategic directions to achieve that vision.

Currently the board, superintendent and administration are working to develop a strategic road map for the district, consisting of four parts: mission, core values, vision and strategic directions. The board has been attending monthly work sessions to work toward that end and has drafted mission and core values, but seeks community input before drafting the vision and strategic directions, Lindholm said.

The district is working with Team Works International, a company Lindholm has worked with in the past and that has experience with Minnesota school districts, to develop the plan.

On Monday, Feb. 3, the board and Lindholm will host an “Hour of Listening” from 6-7 p.m. in the high school media center. This is an opportunity for the community to provide input and discuss ideas in person.

“We will spend February gathering information from staff, businesses, the community and students,” Lindholm said. The board will then meet March 3 to discuss what it’s heard from the community and begin developing a vision statement.

Lindholm said that once it’s established a vision statement, the district will use “vision cards” to measure how the district is progressing in reaching its goals.

“Vision cards are the metrics we use to measure our progress,” Lindholm said, adding that if the district’s goal is effective operations, it will need to come up with several metrics to measure how the district is reaching that goal. For example, effective operations might mean energy efficiency or reducing the number of safety violations the school has in a year.

The survey is online at pequotlakes.k12.us and will be open until Feb. 21. It’s also available in paper form at the district office. Local organizations can call 218-568-4996 to schedule a separate time for input and conversation.